


touch-starved

by DarknessChill



Series: touch-starved [1]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, julie's not really that clumsy, she's just getting used to this, the boys are only sometimes solid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:06:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26581120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarknessChill/pseuds/DarknessChill
Summary: All her boys are a little touch-starved, not that they'd ever admit it or realize it themselves.She can see it in the way they hang off each other, how they choose to all sit on the same couch instead of spreading out, how they press their shoulders together and lean over each other and especially in how they gravitate towards her whenever they're solid. She sees it in the way their smiles falter when she passes through their hands after it fades.After the Orpheum, the boys don’t stay solid – but they sure do randomly become solid at inconvenient times.
Relationships: Alex & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Series: touch-starved [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1935412
Comments: 102
Kudos: 1478





	touch-starved

It happens gradually over a few days.

First, Julie knocks into Reggie as she crosses the garage during practice, accidentally sending them both sprawling backwards and cutting the song off into laughter. It's not until Luke is helping her up off the ground that she realizes the boys are solid again - and almost as soon as she realizes it, she slips out of his suddenly intangible grip and hits the floor once more.

"So is this solid thing only going to happen when it's inconvenient?" Luke asks, offering Julie an apologetic smile as she pulls herself to her feet by herself this time.

"Maybe it has something to do with music," Reggie offers, still on the floor. "We become visible when we perform with Julie, maybe we're starting to become solid when we perform with Julie?"

"Us all sobbing in the garage wasn't much of a performance," Alex reminds him.

"Yeah, I don't think it's the music," Julie hums, glancing between the boys. "But I guess I should be more careful to avoid crashing into you while we're on stage."

Luke acquiesces that, sighing.

"Hey, we'll figure it out," Julie smiles over in his direction. "Should we try that again?"

"Let's do it," Luke agrees, Reggie hopping to his feet with a nod and a grin.

*

The next time, it's just Luke and Julie in the garage, sitting at the piano as they work through the melody of a new song, and their fingers brush as they both reach for the pen at the same time to make a note on the journal page open in front of them.

As soon as he realizes that he's solid, Luke abandons the pen, linking his fingers with hers instead, Julie squeezing his hand like it'll keep him solid longer.

"If you squeeze too hard, you'll just hurt yourself when I turn into air again," Luke teases.

"Shut up," Julie grins at him. "Unless I'm hurting _you_ , you big baby," she teases right back.

Luke laughs, knocking his shoulder into hers lightly and knocking the pen towards her with their joined hands. "Write that down before we forget it."

*

The third time, they're practicing again, Flynn sitting in one of the chairs, recording on her phone so she can post a teaser on social media. Flynn's barely turned off the camera when Julie's leg gets caught in Luke's guitar cable and she stumbles, Luke catching her without even realizing.

"Okay even your instruments are becoming hazards," Julie mumbles, shifting up out of Luke's arms with a grateful smile, and shaking her leg to untangle it from the cable as Luke rests an arm on her shoulder.

"Wait," Flynn stands up, staring at them. "Are you guys... solid?"

"Sometimes?" Reggie offers with a shrug.

"Randomly," Alex adds. "Usually inconveniently."

"Julie's fallen a lot," Reggie agrees.

Flynn scrambles over to Luke and Julie, and Luke shrugs, offering her his other arm. She reaches out cautiously, but her hand goes straight through him.

Julie purses her lips, reaching over and touching Luke's outstretched arm with no difficulty. "Are you telling me that not only am I the only one who can see you when we're not performing, but I'm also the only one who can touch you when you're solid?" she asks the boys with a sigh, entwining her fingers with Luke's and squeezing lightly.

"Guess you're just special, Julie," Reggie grins at her, stepping over and leaning over her other shoulder.

Luke squeezes her hand back in agreement, Julie sighing in response, but before she can say anything else, her hand suddenly closes around air and Reggie stumbles, phasing through Julie and crashing into the ground.

"Aaaand they're gone," Flynn comments. "They hung around a while after you guys stopped performing though," she realizes.

"Wait," Julie steps out of Reggie's way so he can stand up without having to move through her. "You could see them the whole time they were solid to me - they're _visible_ when they're solid?"

"I guess?" Flynn asks. "I mean, they were that time. I'm guessing they're no longer solid."

"Definitely not," Reggie pouts, rubbing his shoulder, Luke rolling his eyes at him. 

"Definitely not," Julie agrees and repeats for Flynn's sake. 

"Ghosts are weird," Flynn concludes, and immediately changes the subject. “Are you guys done practicing or am I getting more sneak peek clips to post?” she grins at them all.

Luke shrugs. “We could keep going. Maybe more practice will make Julie less clumsy,” he teases with a smirk in her direction.

Julie grabs the nearest pillow, lobbing it in his direction, but it passes harmlessly through him, landing on the ground a few feet behind him.

He raises his eyebrows in her direction. “What did you think would happen?”

“Shut up.” She rolls her eyes, turning towards her mic with a nod towards Flynn, and they’re all laughing as Alex counts them in for the next song.

*

They start to fall into a rhythm (and Julie stops _falling_ ) as they continue to become solid randomly. It doesn’t matter which band member is with her when it happens, they press in close and she grips them tight like it’ll change the fact that at the end of the day, they’re still ghosts.

It’s one of these moments, when Luke becomes solid in Julie’s kitchen while she’s working on homework and she takes a break to grab both his hands and interlace their fingers, that she brings it up for the first time.

“If you really are visible when you’re solid, you could talk to your parents.”

That throws Luke for a loop so hard he immediately loses his grip on her hands and they fall through his fingers, stopping to rest lightly on her lap.

She shoots him an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I guess that kind of came out of nowhere.”

“A little,” Luke breathes. “I can’t talk to my _parents_.”

“Why not?” Julie presses lightly. “If we can get this under control – or at least get a little closer to it – then once you’re solid, I could step out of the room and you’ll at least have a few minutes. They won’t be able to touch you, but they could talk to you.”

“You gave them closure with my song, Julie,” Luke says. “And then I show up as a ghost? That’s not gonna help them.”

“It might help _you_ ,” Julie says, nudging his chair lightly since she can’t nudge him directly. “We’d have to practice – but I’m sure Flynn won’t mind, or we could try with Carlos, he’s always asking questions since he found out about you guys.”

“Julie,” Luke breathes.

Julie glances over, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. “I’m overstepping again, aren’t I?”

“No, I—” Luke cuts himself off. “I just really want to hug you right now,” he admits, smiling a little in her direction.

She grins at him. “Next time you’re solid,” she promises, and his smile widens a bit. “So, practicing, then? If you don’t want to see your parents then I get it, but we can practice anyway.”

Luke nods. “Yeah, practicing sounds good – either way.”

Julie beams. "Then I should actually finish this homework so we can _get_ practicing," she says, turning back to the textbook in front of her as Luke laughs.

*

All her boys are a little touch-starved, not that they'd ever admit it or realize it themselves.

She can see it in the way they hang off each other, how they choose to all sit on the same couch instead of spreading out, how they press their shoulders together and lean over each other and especially in how they gravitate towards her whenever they're solid. She sees it in the way their smiles falter when she passes through their hands after it fades. She makes an effort to get as close to them as she possibly can whenever they're not performing, just in case.

She squeezes in next to Reggie in the same armchair he's sitting in while catching up on 25 years of television even though there are plenty of other seats available, and he just shifts over with a smile and goes back to watching whatever show he's turned on as if it's completely normal - which she supposes it is.

She finds Alex perched on the edge of her bed, a book borrowed from Flynn open in front of him, and climbs up next to him, reading over his shoulder as he flips the pages with practiced ease or working on her homework at his side in companionable silence.

And Luke - she's aware enough of her massive crush to admit that she seeks out his company the most, gets into his personal space the most, takes absolutely any chance she has to hold onto his hand like a lifeline, like he'll be ripped away from her at any moment - _they were almost ripped away from her and it broke her heart all over again._

And gripping Luke's hand or Reggie's arm or Alex's wrist in an effort to keep them there, to keep them from disappearing _again_ , Julie admits to herself that maybe she needs this as much as they do.

**Author's Note:**

> There's a lot of fic out there where the boys are always solid (at least for Julie) after the Orpheum, but I wanted to play with the idea of it not being permanent and happening randomly. I absolutely adore this series and have a few more ideas connected to this one brewing and/or mostly written so expect to see this turn into a series of connected oneshots relatively soon.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Is it cool that I said all that?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26666884) by [smol_fangirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smol_fangirl/pseuds/smol_fangirl)




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